Live

We can stay still. Close our eyes. We can think. Talk and discuss. Or we can move ahead regardless.

Gretchen Rubin, author and expert on Happiness, says habits take self-control and decision-making out of the equation: showered and shaved, coffee and toast etc…

Long time ago, event took me out of my habitat . Disrupted my habit. Deer facing oncoming headlights.

Froze. Not sure how to proceed. Millions of little calculations in my CPU. Not enough RAM and ROM. I read Toffler. I consulted Tillich.

Future shock. Culture shock. I was at my inflection point. Like Chevy Chase on his National Lampoon’s vacation, driving around a Parisienne Round-About with time lapse.

Maybe this is how the game is supposed to be played: we don’t know, period.

TIl we have faces.

On the other side of the coin. Fake it til you make it. Two front eyes can only see forward, not back, not over the curve (of the Earth). We all live in a submarine, painted Yellow. Help! Submerged and suffocated.

Things will sort themselves out, so they say. All quiet on the front (but not here).

More EV charging stations, please. More Emotional Charging stations, while at it.

One life to live. So many roads to choose.

Some says “Look within”. Others, outward. For centuries, science and religion never cease to butt-head. We explored the Moon many times over, and turned around to look within, at a nano level. Man’s life vs Moon’s.

How about just close your eyes. Think. Rewind and pause. Take stock. Follow not the herd. The crammed posts from the Democratic Party, from the Republican Party…and now from the Independent Party.

Back to my standing at the crossroads. Which way to turn. One Must move forward (in time). It so happened that topography and time seem to go together. At times, they are de-coupled (as when I returned to the same place, and got to know it for the first time – as a stranger and visitor). Places you can return to. Time, you cannot.

Someone requests a payment from my Paypal. Do I know you? I am broke. Should be the other way around. Scammers and grifters. Go away. Make my day.

Hence, the road ahead is unknown but knowable even when it’s a wrong turn. You and I will only waste time (and energy). But geography can always be redrawn. Empires do this all the time, most times, shrinked. Yet man’s ambition always enlarges, in disproportionate to the size of their penises. Fear not those outward appearances (of silver hair and rim glasses). I am becoming one of them, those supposedly authoritarian figures, who hid their frailties and faults.

Unlearn your reflexes (fear is one of them). Acquire new ones. As Gretchen put it, once we’ve acquired new habits, we don’t need decision-making and self-control. We are on auto-pilot. Go for those frequent bathroom stops. Then immediately refill with caffein and endorphin. Tillich with his analysis on reality and idealism. Toffler, on how efficient can we get what we want in the time we’re given.

Happy is a man who decides, despite all the shocks and doubts. Make making decision (risk taking) part of your new habits. Don’t just stand there and get run over. The road ahead is where we are now standing. I know this. I still remember the speech I heard at graduation: “….with all the privileges and responsibilities this degree entails…”. Been more of the later than the former. All quiet on the front. But not in here…with millions of little calculations given the DNA…to survive Future Shock ( in a pro-sumer society).